Spider Fire flashlight upgrade

[PodeCoet] sent in this mod he did to a Spider Fire flashlight. These things are unbelievably bright, they use Cree LEDs that are so intense, they can ignite paper. [PodeCoet] notes that they run on fairly expensive batteries. Instead of buying some rechargeable ones, he decided to customize and hack his torch. He added a custom charging circuit and a Lilon battery as well as a boost-converter circuit and a status LED. We like the idea of having a rechargeable lamp, but he has lost his water proofing. If anything, you should go there to see his nicely done smd charger pcb as well as the pictures of his test run, burning some paper.

As some people have pointed out in the comments, this flashlight could not have started that fire. This one could though.

I call bs on the paper ignition. I have 20W leds and as bright as they are (if you hold your hand in front of them you can feel the heat from the light absorption alone), you cannot get them to burn anything so long as they are unfocused. The lens required for focusing at the distance shown in the photo there would require more money than what’s already been spent on the rest of the project. And white paper is much harder to ignite by visible or IR light than paper stained a dark color.

A wireless charger would be so much better. No drilling, no lost watertightness. Perhaps a base unit “borrowed” from electric toothbrush? Add a matching coil, diode and a cap inside the torch and there you go – wireless power transfer. Provided the case is not ferrous, but it looks more like aluminum.

lol. the ignition of paper is obviously faked. who needs flashlight which burns everything you point it at? to fry your ass when camping in plastic tent? or to see someones face in the dark (barbecued)? there are lot of homemade burning lasers (from blue-ray burners, etc…) and none of them can ignite WHITE paper from such distance even with correct focus. ;o)

Actually, the term ‘flash light’ refers to the early days of battery lanterns when the light would flash to conserve battery power (old school PWM?) Torch is even more archaic though. Why not call them glowrods¿ I should call mine light stick.

Lots of dumb people in this world. Its ignorant for people outside of the USA to associate the stupid loud minority as representative of the rest of the citizens of the USA. Its also ignorant to expect American citizens to know the intricacies of all other cultures in the world… but yet not know all the different details of the USA. The old constantly used meme “Not everyone lives is USA asshole” is usually properly directed… but there are lots of dumb people in this world.

The burning paper was suspect. Quick searches for other examples were quite difficult since the word “fire” is in the title of many of their products. There is actually a flashlight that can set fires. After looking at all the comments, I found it on the web and it looks like it uses halogen bulbs.

For the efficiency measurements, check if your multimeter is marked “true RMS”. If not its likely just reading some form of average. and due to high currents, the shunt resistance of the DMM can have an effect. Use the highest current range if possible.

btw, for best efficiency, tear apart that cree module and replace it all with a single boost/sepic LED driver. First google result was LM3410 which looks cool.

it’s a great exercise, but i question the need. a couple rechargeable CR123’s and a charger is less than US$20/AU$30 from dealextreme. i’ve been running one of these 1000mAh CR123’s in a 120 lumen light for several weeks of casual use and am very satisfied with the runtime; they’re cheap enough that i can have some charging and some in use.

and, regarding the rabble: do you guys ever realize that you’re lowering yourself when you froth at the mouth to one stupid person, american or not? do you realize how… stupid that makes you look? it’s like getting a troll response without actually trolling.

yea I looked it up and brits do call them torches – but to say that your torch will no longer be water proof? – really a big stick that has fire on the top isnt water proof, I didnt know? – thats why it makes no sence to call it a torch

I know the brits sorta invented English as a language, but like all inventions someone has improved upon it so we dont have to say (al-lu-mini-um) for Aluminum (a-luma-num) even thats the way it is spelled

just messing around I love brits – my other side of the family lives there